In article ,
echinosum wrote:
Rusty Hinge 2;818362 Wrote:

Looks like a Giant Polypore a bit past its sell-by date: Meripilus
giganteus

If it is, it's common, and I haven't heard of it as a destructive
fungus. I repeat, ask in alt.nature.mushrooms - you WILL get chapter
and
verse there.

It is a fungus I associate with stumps of trees that are already dead.
Maybe that is suggestive of something.

It is. Such fungi attack only dead wood, but that includes the
heartwood. The only harm that they do to trees is to reduce their
structural integrity - as mentioned, oak has coadapted to that, and
such fungal attack actually INCREASES its structural integrity.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.